Efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels as a feedstock for industrial chemicals have been undertaken for decades, with a particular focus on enabling economic feasibility of renewable feedstocks. Heightened efforts are being made to more effectively utilize renewable resources and develop “green” technologies, due to increased environmental concerns, continued issues of geopolitical stability, and renewed concerns for the ultimate depletion of fossil fuels.
For example, surfactants are a diverse group of compounds produced on an industrial scale with a diversity of applications including use in cleaning products (e.g. soaps, detergents), paints, adhesives, plastics, and pharmacological compositions. Surfactants are currently produced from petroleum-derived long chain alcohols by sulfonation.
Surfactants are often used for household cleaning, laundry and personal care, as well as in many industrial processes. Industrial uses include oil-field applications and oil spill clean-up. There is increasing interest in developing biomass-derived surfactants, including consumer demand for products from renewable resources.
Cellulose can be used to produce furan-based compounds by way of substituted (methyl)furfurals, such as 5-(halomethyl)furfural. What is desired in the art, however, are more direct methods of producing halomethylfuroic and acyloxymethylfuroic compounds, and other substituted fuoric compounds, from biomass and other renewable sources.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for new methods to produce substituted furoic compounds from renewable resources.